


upholder of teachings

by Pitseleh



Category: Temeraire - Novik
Genre: Gen, card games as foreplay, spoiler warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-14
Updated: 2010-07-14
Packaged: 2017-10-10 13:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pitseleh/pseuds/Pitseleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tharkay tells Laurence and Granby his first name. Warning, spoilers for Tongues of Serpents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	upholder of teachings

**Author's Note:**

> I sat down and immediately had to write this upon finishing _Tongues of Serpents_.

It was perhaps after their second game of cards that evening, when the sun was setting splendidly behind them amid the peaceful ocean that Granby had to bow out, smiling. "I fear I will make a cake of myself, should I continue." He said, throwing his cards in and pouring himself another glass of port. "I am damned glad we are not betting with real currency, or Iskierka would have roasted me finely by now, Will."

Laurence smiled and took the cards back, shuffling them into the whole. The scenery was pleasant, and surrounded by their dragons, the smell of the ship below them was mostly drowned out by Iskierka's steam and Temeraire's bulk.

"I should hope that we should have no worry of that." Said Laurence, allowing Tharkay to take his new cards. Laurence had found cards to be a nice sort of distraction, which cleared his mind of minute details, so he may think more clearly on broader subjects, should he find need.

"Beyond all evidence to the contrary, I gather." Tharkay said, and Granby laughed.

"Oh, surely." Said Granby, "for if she set me alight, she would have roast this damned coat in the process."

At this, Laurence smiled, and Tharkay did so in return, as he had more and more often of late, being largely unguarded. "I see why you wear them, now." Tharkay said, and Granby chuckled in response. After a moment, where Tharkay wore a strange expression on his face that Laurence realized only belatedly was one of uncertainty. "It makes perfect sense, John."

Granby's eyes widened at that, and Tharkay looked down at his cards rather coolly, shuffling them with all the silent ease his nimble fingers allowed. As a pregnant silence settled upon the three of them, Laurence found himself shamefully slow to smooth things out, as he presumed he had drunk far too much in an attempt to keep up with his companions. It was of course then that Granby spoke up, "That is damned unfair of you, Tharkay; you must know not a soul on this ship knows your first name, or even if you have one, at all."

To this, Tharkay seemed to take offense, and looked up sharply. "I have a name." He said, and then looked back down at his cards rather coolly. "Tenzing Tharkay."

Finding his silence at this point to be to be possibly conspicuous, he laid down his first card and said, in an attempt to be pleasant, "Then if I may- Tenzing, I believe it is your turn."


End file.
